Forge of Souls Impressions

So it took me a good few days to find some time to test the new 5-man introduced in the latest PTR build. Yep, I am talking about the Forge of Souls, the first wing of the Frozen Halls, which is the composite name of all 3 5-mans in the Icecrown Citadel. Story-wise it is the first section of the Frozen Halls you are going to enter, so I am going to spend a little time talking about the story behind those three dungeons.

Yep, after the break :D

Oh, and let me tell you something. Instance full of creepy flying skulls that seem to be laughing at you while floating around playfully is one of the creepiest things I have ever seen in the game.

So here is the story. At the time we, the players behind the computers, get Patch 3.3, our ingame characters, the heroes of Azeroth go on a determined attack against the Lich King. The Argent Crusade and the Knights of the Ebon Blade send their champions to distract the Scourge forces, while a small force led by Jaina or Sylvanas, depending on your faction, attacks the citadel from a side entrance. Jaina shares that she senses something that radiates strong magic from deep within the Citadel - but not the Frozen Throne. Something that lies in the Halls of Reflection, which are your final goal. Sylvanas doesn't sense anything of this sort, but mentions that deep within the Halls of Reflection lay the Lich King's private chambers. So she kind of wants to go there and see how much she can ruin his plans.

So that's for story. You need to secure the Forge, then the Pit, and then infiltrate the Halls, while being assisted by a beautiful, but deadly lady, and a bunch of champions.

As far as the dungeon itself goes, it was kind of fun, but several things irritated me. Just a little. All of the pulls were way too spread out - both within themselves, and when compared to other pulls. As a paladin, I need to be able to pull the next pack of monsters within 15 seconds of the last one's death - and I was rarely about to do that. And the mobs composing each pack were too far apart from each other, making my Avenger's Shield half useless.

But enough rant. Let's talk about the positive aspects of the place.

You can fall to your death. Well, you probably can't, but all the noobs that expect you to carry them with can! And there are creepy smiling skulls floating around the entire place - which looks absolutely majestic, by the way. It has a "meat grinder" feel to it, I think, just for souls instead of meat. The best part is that you always have a chance to get a skull - a weak one - to spawn right on top of you and attack you. I think the environment overall gives a very distinct and right feeling to the place.

And now the bosses. Bronjahm, also know as the Godfather of Souls, is the first fellow you will encounter. Apparently he is the one responsible for the Soul Grinders' functionality, and since you want to shut the things down, he is not happy... It's a fun fight, with him doing almost nothing for some good 80% of the fight. Then at 20% he summons a storm of souls. It's a circle 15 yards away from him that does high damage to everyone on its circumference - so either be in or out. He will also Shadow Bolt spam at this point (casting every 1 secods, I think), and fear your tank into the storm. Fun fight at the end, but I think the first 80% need more to them.

The Devourer of Souls, the second and last boss in this place, is a much more dynamic - and difficult, in my opinion - fight. The thing looks like the Reliquary of Souls from Black Temple, and was kind of tough to take on, even on Normal. It will damage the tank with mostly spells, casting Soul Mirror occasionally. The Soul Mirror seemed to be just a damaging circle spawning underneath a random party member, but I suspect something bad would happen if you stayed in it too long - other than the damage you'd take. The Devourer will also summon an army of souls that cannot be killed or tanked, and will just damage your party. I think this one has to be healed through. Pretty intensive fight, with a lot of movement :)

Of course as soon as you defeat the Devourer Jaina/Sylvanas will rush in the room with their allies from the Argent Crusade and Knights of the Ebon Blade, set up a camp (kind of) and make sure the area is secure. A teleporter will be set for you to move on and lead the assault on the Pit of Saron. Surprised that you did all the work?

So that's what I have to say about the Forge of Souls. Blizzard changes the new dungeons all the time, so the encounters will likely change a little, but overall I'd give the place something like 7/10 (as opposed to 8/10 in the Pit of Saron).

Comment by Hyperspacerebel

Comment by Zanny

on 2009/11/16 23:48:33

Personally after trying all 3, I would rank them...

Halls of ReflectionForge of SoulsPit of Sauron

Halls of Reflection is downright badass. It has some violet hold built in (even though adds spawning from all corners of the room means you just huddle by the door) the 2 bosses are very quick, and there is 1 TOTAL static trash group in the entire instance, and thats a miniboss. Lich King fight was amazing, my only problem was the suspension of belief when your tank goes afk for 5 mins and Sylvanas is still holding Arthas in place. I wish they could do something more inventive, like cave the room in on him and teleport the players out (see pit of sauron) then have him break out when you start the event.

Forge of Souls I liked because of the brevity, the trash was sparse and the bosses were unique, I would agree that they could shrink the distance between mobs in a pull but you could always just run in and shield after they group up to run at you. The final boss was also extremely creative and a worthy endboss of a heroic, and the reuse of the reliquary model is great, because that must have been the most unique boss they made. Increasing the amount of trash is a no - 5 - 6 pulls per boss is perfect, adding more makes it feel like....

Pit of sauron, where the 3 bosses seem to go in strange orders. The problems here, are that at the beginning, you dont need to kill both necromancers that start the event (they should aggro together) and then, there is a massive amount of unused space in the instance where blizzard just stuffed extra trash. Some trash groups overlap one another too much, before you get to the forgemaster. My problem with him is that his stupid aura can bug, and you have to tank him OFF his platform in order to assure no one gets to 20+ stacks of death. That, and the adds at the beginning of the fight seem more like a nuisance than anything, they never respawn and his use of the forges doesnt seem to generate much impact on the fight. Ick is, on the flipside, awesome, he does so many things in his fight you are really on your toes even after doing it two or three times, but again, the trash is a pain. To get to him, you clear around the pit some more, then clear his trash, to fight him.

But I think my biggest issue besides the buggy forgemaster and excessive space is the trash to the final boss. Tyrannus's cave trash is amazingly well done, a good gauntlet with lots to avoid and tank. However, before that, you have the 4 most annoying trash pulls I have ever seen. The first 2 pack 5 caster adds each, none of which seem to want to move even after getting interrupted, and for most tanks holding aggro on them is amazingly painful. After them, you get packs of 4 skeletons and 2 casters, whom stand on opposite ends of the pull, and once again are stupidly hard to move, and I can bet a protadin would want to rip his hair out trying it without an interrupt, or a feral druid who roots for the length of his interrupt. These 4 trash groups not only clutter the instance significantly, they are not hard, but tedious to tank and kill. If anything should happen to these 3 instances, its the removal of these 4 pointless trash packs.

Tyrannus himself is a great fight, with the background of war to keep it energizing. I think HIS fight is well played, but not as good as the end fights of ether of the other 2 dungeons. If I were to rate all 3 instances, Halls of Reflection would be a definite 10, Forge of Souls an 8 and Pit of Sauron a 5.5. I just feel blizzard took two steps ahead in instance progression, style, and aggravation (not difficulty!) and 3 steps back on pit of sauron.

Hindsight on a post like this is great, even for a necro thread ;|

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